By Dan Hanley
Mike and I were surrounded by friends, enjoying vegan tamales (with
vegan mole!) and sangria at our election night party when we heard that
Ohio had gone for the President and news organizations began calling the
Presidential election for President Obama.
I was ecstatic.
And I still am. As we continued to watch the results that night and then
also the next morning, it became clear that, based on our opinions,
election night had produced some wonderful results:
President Barack Obama was re-elected. This was huge for us based on
equality, women's rights, veteran care and the economy. It is great
having a President who supports our marriage.
The Colorado State House became Democratic again. As of right now it is
38 to 27. What this means is that we are likely to have our first openly
gay Speaker of the House in Colorado and any civil unions bill
presented is sure to pass. The Republican house leadership has stopped
it for a couple of years, even though there were enough votes for it to
pass if it got to a floor vote.
Tammy Baldwin became the first openly gay member of the US Senate,
representing Wisconsin. I take issue with her past support of the Animal
Enterprise Terrorism Act and how that has affected animal activists,
yet I am still happy for her.
Gay marriage passed in Maine and Maryland. This means these states
actually voted on whether to legalize gay marriage, and they both said
YES! In Washington state, voters approved marriage equality as well,
supporting a law signed by the governor earlier in the year.
An anti-gay amendment to the Minnesota constitution was defeated.
Our US Congressman, Ed Perlmutter, and our State Rep, Max Tyler, were both re-elected.
Amendment 64, which legalizes the possession of up to one ounce of
marijuana in Colorado, passed. Even though political "leaders" were all
against this, it passed. I am happy just for that, but also because I
believe marijuana should be legalized (and the sale of it taxed). Too
many people around the world die because of drugs being illegal.
In our county, Jefferson County, voters approved 3A and 3B which will raise tax revenues for our public schools.
Tea party scum in Indiana and Missouri were soundly defeated. I'm sure
elsewhere too. It was a good night for religious extremists in this
country.
Lots and lots of people voted. They waited forever in line to vote. They
disputed being told they could not vote. They made sure their voice was
going to be heard.
What was your favorite result of the election?
Before I close, I want to say thank you to our blog readers for putting
up with our blogs written about the election. This election was just too
important not to write about, or not to share who we supported and why.
I'm sure it wasn't fun for all of our readers, but thanks for sticking
with us and especially thanks for supporting us.
And thank you for reading this post!
This post originally appeared on Dan Hanley's website The Gay Vegans. Republished with permission.